VT 100 (Killington) Nobo 1700

This post is from August 3, 2015.   The GPS tracking of this hike can be found at:

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/854322919 

Today I hiked a little over 20 miles with a fairly long and steep ascent over Killington.

I got up at 4:30am today and left Maine at 5am.  With the dropping off of the motorcycle at VT 100 in Killington and then driving through Rutland to the starting trailhead at VT 103 south of Rutland I did not start actually hiking until 8:40am.  The miles were harder and slower today.  Towards the end of the day the ski slopes of both Killington and Pico Peak were visible at times. 

The AT/Long Trail only gets within .2 miles of the summit of Killington and I did not want to add .4 miles to my day so this is the closest I got to the

summit:

The Long Trail has overlapped with the AT since the MA/VT border but 2 miles before the end of today's hike I arrived at Maine Junction where the Long Trail vectors off towards Canada.

It is weird and interesting to see two trails heading in two different directions with the classic AT white blazes.  I don't know the history for sure, but the Long Trail is marked with white blazes just like the AT.

Perhaps it used them before the AT, I will have to check.  In any case, that junction is clearly marked and once you leave that junction you follow the white blazes presumably knowing whether you are on the Long Trail or the AT.

I suppose if you had had too many Long Trails before that decision you might NOT know which trail you were on, though :-)

The end of the day saw a lot of thunder and light rain but the skies never truly opened until 1/2 way home on my drive home.  That was just after seeing a black bear cross in front of my truck on Interstate 89 in NH.